Fatty acid composition of human milk from mothers of preterm and full-term infants

Introduction. Human milk is an essential food for newborns and affects life in the long or short terms. Its composition is modified by nutritional status and maternal diet as well as by gestational age of the newborn. It provides human milk-fed infants with the medium-chain fatty acids which are a source of energy, and essential fatty acids and their metabolic derivatives which have been involved in the neural maturation. Objectives. Due to the fact that there is little local data concerning the fatty acid composition in human milk of pre-term and full-term newborns, the present study was carried out in women living in the urban area of the Buenos Aires Province. Materials and methods. Samples were provided by the Bank of Human Milk, H. I. G. A. San Mart Hospital. They corresponded to mothers who had delivered preterm infants (28-36 weeks of gestational age) or full-term infants (37-42 weeks of gestational ages). Total lipids were extracted, and the fatty acid composition was determined by gas-liquid chromatography. Results. Results showed increases in saturated fatty acids up to 14 carbon atoms and in polyunsaturated fatty acids in mothers of preterm newborns compared with those of full-term newborns. Conclusions. It can be concluded that gestational age affects human milk fatty acid composition. This food is essential for pre-term newborns as it is the source of energetic compounds (saturated fatty acids) as well as plastic compounds, (polyunsaturated fatty acids) which are essential for the synthesis of structural lipids and neural development.